Dying to Love (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 18)

by Morgan Kelley

  They could only hope.

  If he did, they’d find him. Time was not running out for Elizabeth. It wasn’t happening.

  Ethan pulled out his phone. He called the florist he had on speed dial.

  It was closed.

  “Tomorrow, I’ll head there personally to handle this,” he stated.

  Elizabeth pulled off her gloves. “Dad, I have to pass on dinner. I’m sorry. I really need to get working on this.”

  He was worried.

  “Elizabeth, you be careful. Those little ones need their mommy.”

  She was well aware.

  “I’m sorry I ruined our family dinner.”

  He went to Elizabeth and hugged her. “I’ll make sandwiches. You go sit and find this asshole. I don’t like anyone messing with my family.”

  Her either.

  This killer had crossed all kinds of lines.

  She headed into the living room. “Where are Johanna and Broderick?”

  “They are grabbing your paper files from fourteen years ago. They’re making copies, and they’ll be here as soon as they get that little task handled.”

  “Great. We need to lock this asshole down, and soon. I don’t want him running loose in DC. This is my town. I’m not putting up with this bullshit.”

  Ethan agreed.

  “Let’s find him.”

  Yeah, now where the hell to even start…?

  Chapter Nineteen

  When they arrived, the Blackhawk homestead was stirred up. Security was extra tight, and they even made Johanna and Brody go through a scan and pat down.

  It was crazy.

  Clearly, something had happened.

  This was off. The guards on the gate knew they were Feds and didn’t pose a risk, but no one was taking any chances.

  Once inside, where the head tech was standing, they saw the picture and roses.

  Yeah, someone was a dead man once Ethan and Callen got their hands on him.

  This ‘wooing Elizabeth’ thing was getting out of hand. This killer was crossing all the lines, and playing with napalm.

  He was asking for trouble.

  “Where’s the boss?” Joey asked Amir.

  “She’s in there. She’s waiting for you, and it’s tense. I hope you’re ready to pull an all-nighter,” Amir said. “I’m taking this in, and then I’m heading home if they need me.”

  They went to find her.

  In the spacious living room, the boss was in front of the white board, and she was getting ready to start. On the table, there was a platter laden with sandwiches, bottles of soda, and chips.

  It looked like a working dinner.

  “Good. You’re here. Let’s begin. Do you have my files and copies?” she asked.

  Johanna passed them out.

  “I’ll go through the suspects I had back then, we’ll divide up, and we’re going to start working them. I want everything on each and every one. If they live in DC, they’re on the suspect list. Tomorrow, Callen and I will hit the ground and start the interview process.”

  “Is that safe?” Brody asked.

  “I have Callen, and I will be extra alert tomorrow. I simply won’t drink anything anyone gives me—since that’s how he’s grabbing people.”

  That helped the men relax.

  Elizabeth opened up her original file. “Okay, let’s start with who we know it’s not. Clayton Frost, AKA James Austin was the killer. I called the department of corrections. He’s still in the psych ward, and he’s never getting out.”

  Well, that was one person off her list.

  “Let’s have them,” Ethan stated.

  She began at the top.

  “We have the only non-male, Noor Blackburn. Her husband, Robert Donaldson, was on my first initial suspect list, since he had been with a couple of the hookers.”

  They all made notes.

  “Callen, how are we on his alibis?”

  “He’s in the clear. He shows up on cameras when he says he was with the kids, and he wasn’t anywhere near the store.”

  She crossed him off the list.

  “What about Noor?” Johanna asked.

  Ethan took this one. “Since this killer is after a wife, I think we can eliminate her.”

  “She’s a lesbian.”

  Ethan shook his head. “She’s not going to rape them. She’s going to kill, and no woman, who gets her nails done, is going to chop off a head. This is a male. Remove her.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “One hundred percent positive.”

  “I suspected the detectives at first too. Kaleb Williams is where?” she asked.

  “He’s in Florida. He’s working Metro Dade as a detective in homicide.”

  “Brody, see if you can pin him down there. It’s a Sunday night. Call dispatch and ask them to have him call. Then trace it.”

  He smiled. “Tricky.”

  “Yeah, I like to roll that way.”

  He went off to handle that.

  “Next is Detective Sheehan. He lost his secret girlfriend when the killer took her life. If this is him, why the marriage and not just revenge? Let’s face it. The man hates my guts. He’s gunning for me.”

  Ethan handed her the file. “Here are his shifts. He was working all of them. I called dispatch and they said he was on duty.”

  Okay, that removed him.

  She crossed him off the list.

  “Johanna, find me Arnold Knox. He was a financial advisor, and I may, or may not, have tanked his business. He may also be a card carrying member of the ‘I hate Elizabeth’ club.”

  “On it.”

  “There was a man named Rodney Cole. He was into buying hookers. He was crazy enough to be after me to be the hooker of his dreams. Can you run him, Callen?”

  “On it.”

  She scanned the list.

  Brody came back. “They patched me through to Detective Williams. He was working at his desk. He’s in Florida.”

  Well, so much for the cops being killers.

  Next…

  “We have Mason Coffman. He was a religious nut who was trying to save the world one hooker at a time. Brody, you can research him.”

  “On it,” he said, grabbing a soda and a chair. He got down to work.

  “Who’s next?” Ethan asked. “I’m game for some research.”

  “Harvey Wellstone is this guy who was picked up three times with the hookers, and he didn’t care. He paid for sex, and that was all that mattered.”

  “I’ll find everything on him.”

  “Who else do we have?”

  She was back to her present day list.

  “We have two pimps, and one impregnates his girls.”

  “How old is he?” asked Ethan.

  “He’s about fifty, I guess. Maybe less. He’s so condescending that it’s beyond ignoring.”

  “We also have a hooker killed fourteen years ago who was knocked up, and her child is one of our present day victims. Do we know if maybe Linda Yu is Edward Becker’s child?” Callen asked.

  She’d never considered that.

  “Let’s find out.”

  Johanna raised her hand. “We also have Patrick Singer. We can’t confirm his where about since he’s on vacation, and he’s shacked up with Ethan’s old partner, a person who knows how he thinks.”

  She had a point.

  “I’ll take him. It’s going to be a long night, but we can do it,” Ethan said.

  She hoped.

  They settled in, and they got to work. They had a killer to catch, and from the looks of it, it spanned over fourteen years.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  Monday Morning

  It was a damn long night. The team was still working until three in the morning when Elizabeth finally told them to go to bed. They needed to crash because it was going to be a marathon of interviews, and they had to get up early for a head start.

  As they had coffee in her kitchen, Ethan was handling some meetings on the ph
one.

  “I want the owner of that florist on the line ASAP. I don’t care if you have to drive to his freaking house, drag him from bed, and bring him in naked. Get him!”

  She laughed when he hung up. It was clear that Ethan wasn’t playing games, and the man was going to get one hell of an interrogation.

  Someone was throwing his weight around and it was aimed at whoever sold those flowers.

  Elizabeth couldn’t help but wink at him. His bossiness was sexy.

  “I’ll handle him today. You just get your interviews done, and I’ll deal with the florist and anything else you need back up on between meetings.”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  “You had better be. If anything happens to you, I’ll be mad.”

  She loved him so damn much she wanted to cry.

  Ethan saw the emotion. “Hey, are you okay?”

  “I’m just wearing down. That’s all.”

  That was part of it.

  Ethan moved toward her and lifted her chin with a finger so she was staring into his eyes. He knew there was more.

  It was right there on her face.

  He knew his wife, or he thought he did.

  “Is there anything you want to tell me about you and Chris? Has something happened between you? Did a line get crossed, Elizabeth?”

  Well, shit!

  It took everything she had not to react.

  It wasn’t easy.

  It was so out of the blue, and so surprising, she actually struggled to say anything. Finally, she got the words out.

  “Uh, no. He hasn’t crossed any lines.”

  And those weren’t the words she wanted to say. Instead, she did the worst thing.

  She broke another vow to her husband.

  Lies, lies, lies.

  She was screwed.

  At that moment, Callen walked in and he knew something was up. “Uh, am I interrupting?” he asked. He could feel the tension in the air.

  “No,” stated Ethan. “You’re not interrupting.”

  He didn’t even look at Elizabeth. Ethan was staring at him, and he knew his brother. He was measuring the responses. Callen could tell.

  “Well, I have your list.”

  “Okay, let me have it,” Elizabeth said. She was more than happy to start working. She didn’t want to have a fight with Ethan, and she suspected it was coming.

  She was too emotionally drained.

  “Harvey Wellstone lives here in DC. He’s in Georgetown. We can swing over. It’s not far from here.”

  She made him number one on her list of suspects to interview. Honestly, she wasn’t looking forward to it. She remembered him from last time. The geek was so damn arrogant. He might have been rich like Chris, but he was so ridiculous in his reasoning and hooker buying.

  He irritated the hell out of her last time. Elizabeth could only imagine what round two would be like.

  Yeah, not looking forward to it.

  “Next?”

  “Rodney Cole is still in DC. He’s been in and out of jail for solicitation. He has a hell of a rap sheet. He has some violent behavior on his sheet too. He looks like a candidate for killer, if you ask me.”

  She weighed her options. “We’ll do him second. I need to get my bearings before I really go at him. I want to be ready for anything.”

  Callen put him on the list.

  “Who else did the team find?” Elizabeth asked.

  Ethan was watching her, and he was worried. His wife was off her game. He didn’t know why, but she was edgy, fidgety, and wouldn’t look at him.

  Plus, he swore she just lied to him about Chris.

  How could this be?

  Ethan was getting angry.

  No, that wasn’t the word for it. He was on his way to irrational and irate. He hated being lied to as a director and husband.

  He wasn’t an idiot.

  Callen flipped through the papers for his wife until he found the information she was looking for on suspects.

  “Arnold Knox is in California. He’s working there in the movie industry, helping the rich get richer.”

  “He’s been there the whole time?”

  “We checked all the airlines. He didn’t board a plane, unless he has a jet. That could be buried under corporate BS, and will take forever to find the trail.”

  She was aware.

  He was off her list.

  “Okay, who else?”

  “Mason Coffman is still in DC after all this time. Only now, he’s a preacher in the hood. He’s around hookers all day long. He’s at the same church leading it, as he was when you first interviewed him.”

  She weighed her options.

  Elizabeth was rattled, and she wasn’t sure if she should bump him to the top of the list. They had a religious man around hookers all day.

  To her, that screamed top suspect.

  She needed some time to mull it over, and Ethan was watching her.

  It was making her nervous.

  “Okay, we’ll take Harvey Wellstone first, since he’s the closest, and then we’ll work our way to the hood. Mason is a big man, if memory serves me correctly. He’s too big for the guy we saw in the video, but that was fourteen years ago.”

  Callen was good with that. He was a big man too. If he even tried to get his woman, he’d clip him at the knees.

  “Then we’ll hit up Rodney. He was loopy then. I can’t wait to see the hovel he lives in now.”

  Callen made notes. “Whenever you’re ready to roll, I’m good. The team is still digging for anything else.”

  Perfect.

  She needed more. As of that moment, she was going with her gut, and that was a hot mess. She wanted to come clean to her husband, but she couldn’t do it.

  Her time, literally, was running out.

  Elizabeth kissed both men.

  “I’ll see you later, handsome.”

  Ethan held her a few more seconds. He wanted to shake her and beg for her to be honest with him. His BS detector was going off.

  “I love you, Ethan.”

  He set her free without saying the words back. “I’ll call as soon as I get anything from the florist.”

  She was good with that, but she wasn’t good with the wall that was being built between them.

  It was happening.

  She was really out of time on this too.

  Callen touched her arm, trying to help her work through it with just being there for her.

  “I’m okay,” she whispered, as they walked away.

  He knew that wasn’t the truth.

  He wasn’t okay.

  Ethan wasn’t okay.

  Elizabeth definitely wasn’t either.

  This was a mess, and someone was going to get hurt.

  He knew it.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  He was waiting.

  She’d come.

  He knew she’d figure it out. Since finding the last woman, she hadn’t been out of the compound she called a home.

  He was betting it all on her.

  So, as he sat in his home, preparing the needles, he waited patiently.

  “Come to me, my lovely bride. Now you will be mine. I can feel it in my bones.”

  It was time to get ready.

  He was getting the girl.

  Finally.

  Fourteen years too late.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  Ethan was on his way into work when his cell rang. It was the florist with information. He told him he’d stop into the shop. Instead of heading to the office, he detoured. He could be a few minutes late since he was the boss.

  When he walked in, the man behind the counter immediately recognized him.

  “Sir…”

  He shut him down.

  He was cranky, his wife was lying to him, and he needed to get to work. Any more BS, and he was going to lose it.

  “I need your security camera footage. Who came in here to buy flowers to be delivered to m
y home?”

  The man pulled out his file. “No one came in. They called it in, Deputy Director. We thought it was odd, but you and Mr. Whitefox buy a lot of flowers. You haven’t in a while, so we just assumed...”

  “I need the number.”

  The older man slid the book over. “I have caller ID, that’s why we have it.”

  He scribbled it down and made a note to change florists. If this was the jackassery, he wasn’t in the mood for it. The florist should have tagged this as odd. Everyone in the freaking city knew his wife chased the crazies.

  They should have called him.

  Somehow, he kept his ever-growing bad mood to himself. His phone was continually going off with FBI bullshit, his wife was out with the lunatics and in danger, and she had lied to him.

  It was a bad day in Blackhawkville.

  “Thank you,” he managed before turning on his heel.

  Once outside, he made a call. On the phone, he reached out to his tech department. “I have a number. Find me the owner!”

  “Yes, sir,” the man said.

  Ethan rattled it off. He could hear typing in the background as the man worked as quickly as he could.

  His second line beeped.

  He ignored it.

  Ethan was too lost in his own thoughts.

  When the tech came back online, he listened to the name he read off. It was one he’d just heard. In fact, the person was on his wife’s interview list.

  Tag.

  They got him.

  Apparently, he was slipping up. This was proof he was crazy and had some illness distorting his intelligence. He’d actually used a phone tied to him.

  “Are you sure? If my wife goes through that door, and you’re wrong, heads will roll.”

  “I’m positive, sir. It’s not a personal phone, but it’s registered to a tech company.”

  That was all he had to hear.

  They got their rat right in his really pricey hole.

  Now to let his wife do her thing.

  It should be easy from here on out. What’s the worst that could happen? They had their man.